Joseph Moindre

Born 1888 in Seine-Maritime -FRANCE. Died 1965.

Joseph-Albert-Alfred Moindre was a commercial real estate broker in Paris. He got married in 1911. He soon became interested in metaphysics, and through his research got to visit a number of churches. He was initiated to spiritualism and developed a passion for ancient Egypt. He loved reading books about this civilization and soon refered to himself as an Egyptologist. His personal life changed, he became despotic and authoritarian. His wife and friends abandoned him one after the other. He found himself alone. In 1942, at the age of fifty-two, he started drawing sights of Paris, then scenes inspired by his own metaphysical beliefs. He brought together Christian, Jewish and Egyptian themes : temples covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, interspersed with representations of Moses and Christ, pharaohs and mysterious figures with three heads. Labyrinth like temples with unusual perspectives, stairs leading nowhere, they are all a testimony of his free style which goes beyond the themes he represents. At the age of sixty-eight, left with no money, Moindre moved into a home for ex-service men. He became weak and could no longer paint. He died in a hospital in 1965.